Not Many of Us Out Here

Recently, I had my sister and nine of her friends stay at my house for one weekend. My husband and I got to hang out with them for dinner one night before they went back to Vancouver and I realized then just how much I crave Chinese-ness out here in Mission. They were speaking in Chinese (not all the time) and making Chinese references. Finally, people who know what I mean when I say "yeet hay!"

Here in Mission, there are scarcely any Chinese people, although there are a few more Koreans. The Chinese food in Mission is westernized (what is kum pao and chop suey?) and sorely lacking variety. Apparently another Chan Clan who also happen to be teachers lurk in Mission/Abbotsford somewhere. In fact, I just transferred to a new school where the former vice-principal there was just transferred to another school and he was a Chan! The school that I worked at had a very small representation of East Asians ranging from Korean to Vietnamese. Only one other staff member was a visible minority and she and I often swapped Asian jokes and statements with each other (she is Indo-Canadian). She understands as much as I do the limited representation of the Asian culture in Abby-Mission. In one instance, another co-worker claimed that the best butter chicken she has ever tasted comes from M&M Meat Shop. My Indo-Canadian friend just about flipped! We all laughed about it, but my brown friend still shakes her head over it.

It's not that I don't like non-Chinese people; far from it, in fact, since both D and I grew up in friendship circles of mixed ethnicity (D was definitely a minority in his group of friends). Somehow, though, I just feel comfortable with people who culturally understand me. I miss having Chinese friends with similar lifestyles to hang out with.

I talked to my sister about this complaint of mine and she suggested that I move to Richmond. There are TOO many Chinese people living there and they're not the CBC kind like D and I are. My sister said, "Well, now you're just being finicky."